Many people need to split bills with other members of a group, i.e. to make a communal bill payment. For example, roommates, teammates, family members, friends, clubs, or other groups may receive a bill and need to split the cost based on criteria. Sometimes, these bills recur like, for example, a lease payment or a utility bill, and payment may be based on usage or other criteria.
Conventional methods for splitting bills often involve placing a bill in a single group member's name, even if multiple group members split the bill. Often, the responsible group member manually receives payment from other group members, for example by depositing checks into a checking account, and submits a single combined payment to the biller or provider. One problem is that conventional methods may require the responsible party to track payments and pay by the due date, an inconvenient, time-consuming effort. The amount owed by each party may be variable and difficult to calculate. Further, this approach relies on the responsible group member's honesty, diligence, and organizational skills. A payment error or missed payment by the responsible group member may negatively impact all group members. In addition, the responsible group member may be forced to send reminders to other group members for late payments or bounced checks, creating an undesirable social situation. A further problem with conventional methods is that group members whose names do not appear on the bill may have difficulty establishing an official or legal status like, for example, proof of residence. Further, the responsible party may be forced to assume an obligation to pay when the other group members are delinquent in payment. From these and other problems, it is apparent that conventional methods for splitting bills are inconvenient and create risks for all group members.
Some payment apps, software programs, online services, and other systems attempt to address some of these problems, but these systems suffer from deficiencies. For example, some systems function as simple payment schedulers or record-keepers, and in some cases may send reminder or confirmation notifications to group members. However, these programs may lack the ability to pay a provider directly and do not reduce the risks identified above. Further, these systems may not be scalable and react to events in real-time.
In view of the shortcomings and problems with traditional methods, an improved and unconventional system and method for splitting group bills that reduces risk and increases convenience is desired.